Troling spread

[Ron Jones]

It is official, the THANK U BABY is coming back!

The THANK YOU BABY is my 05 22ft Wellcraft walkaround. It has been laid up with an ice split engine (hey, it's what happens when you take a So Cal boy up North) for a few years and the repair till now has adequate fundage to perform the overhaul and a bit of refit. The boat has a 150 mile range with a 5.0 engine and the wife and I sleep well in the cabin.

I have always loved trolling, but have not trolled her much. Spent all my time with bottom fish and surface salmon in Wa. Next July I will run her for albacore out of Ilwaco and then she will be shipped to Oahu and will go wherever the Navy sends me after that.

So, as much as everyone always wants to go after the big boys I honestly get my fill of that quickly. I really like running for what I would call "medium" game such as Mahi (dorado), Ono (Wahoo) and Yellowtail (I don't think they get those in Hawaii)

After all that my question to you is what reel would you build a trolling spread around? With outriggers I can troll more rods than I want so I'm thinking 7 at most. I only want to talk about Senators, I've caught really big fish on them and have no interest in lever drags. I want everything to be the same and I detest spending the retail price of something new.

I am thinking 114HLWs, but if I run for bigger fish ocasionally a 115 may be right. Of course as strong as we are making hot rodded reels these days a Broadbill special may suffice. Whatever the decision I will rework all of them with all of the goodies.

So what do you think?
Thanks
Ron

[Nuvole]

I've successfully landed some Mahi & Wahoo using 113H, 50-60lb braided with 80lb topshot at 4-6 knots.
I fish while on the job hence the ship won't stop for me to land the fish.

[Bryan Young]

7 rod spread is a lot in Hawaii.  We mostly run only 3-5 in the spread depending on the boat size.

From where you are, I'd say hook up with my friend Dean Sensui (producer and camera man for Hawaii Goes Fishing) and Kamuwela.  They both fish out of Waianae and can show you the ropes for fishing on the 3 mile ledge to catch ono and aku.  Mahi mahi, you may need to go out to the 5 miles.  Then there's bottom fishing.  I hope you have a good fishfinder to mark those ledges, and it is often our finders have a completely blank screen since the depth exceed 5000 feet in a heartbeat.

[Dominick]

Ron: I would use Penn Senator 114 all around.  They do not have to be hlw although having more line on a wide reel does not hurt.  Dominick

[joel8080]

I have a 27 Blackfin for 12 years 7 in FL and 5 in Panama and when I fish with my Wife 3-4 rods at most and I have 18 ft outriggers on the boat, she will drive while I play mate I give her the heading and the resipicals, when I go out with or 3 guys 6 rods is max other wise it becomes a fire drill, I like to run 2 114H, 2 113Hn & 2 113H all hot roded and they have never let me down and we caught a lot of fish in FL and here in Panama, with just the wife and I use 2 114H and 2 113H.

Joel8080

[Ron Jones]

Great. I'll start investing in 114s. I'll not be picky and get either standard or wide. I have notices that Penn offered Full aluminum and half aluminum frames for this reel. Has anyone noticed a strength difference between the two? I would like to get all of them with Penn frames in order to not have to invest in Tiburon frames.

Thanks, as always!
Ron

[Bryan Young]

Hi Ron,

I've got 3 with Penn's 1/2 aluminum frames and one with an accurate frame that i'm not using.  call me if you are interested.

Bryan

[jonathan.han]

Run as many as you can handle. It's only a fire drill if you can't put out the fire.

I usually troll seven for albacore in  Northern California to see if the fish will bite close or several wakes back (with outriggers) plus 2 meat lines. Sometimes, when we're fishing commercially, I'll put on 2-4 more meat lines and maybe bump all the rods up to 80-100lb. main line and slow the boat to 3-4 knots to reel them in. If they're swimming under the boat and boiling on chum after jig strikes, I'll run 2-4 meat lines and run 2-3 rods only if I want to fish bait or iron.

[kamuwela]

5 rods and 18 -20 ft outriggers is the norm. the reels don't need to be too big for ono and mahi.

[Nicko_Cairns]

In have a 14' boat over here in Aus, pretty often we run into sizeable schools of fish, so I only run as many rods as anglers on the boat, which is usually two! My prey is usually Spanish (king) mackerel up to 6' long. One tip that May or may not apply to you blokes is to troll through the water column, so my prey come higher early and late in the day, so I run a garfish (ballyhoo) at about 3' the. An xrap 30 at about 27' both in about 60 - 90' of water.

When the sun is higher in the sky the fish go deeper, so both options aren't deep enough . Then it's time to either use a downrigger, or switch to live baiting or jigging.

[Patudo]

I recommend checking out the Hawaii fishing board on BDoutdoors as that seems to have the most local participation.  Lurk around for a while and you'll get a feel for the main target species, seasons, methods and gear.  There are also a couple of books you should invest in: Fishing Hawaii Style #1 by Jim Rizzuto and another one called Hawaii's Offshore Hunters.  

Very generally, the area around Oahu island produces wahoo on the inshore ledges and dorado and skipjack tuna near FAD buoys and under birds.  The gear you already have will likely be suitable for those, although bird schools in deep water need to be carefully read to make sure they are on the right species. The real passion though for many locals is yellowfin tuna, which during the summer run will often go over 100lbs and can reach over 200.  Rough water (trade wind conditions, often outside the lee) and the likelihood of hooking two or more of these very powerful fish at a time from the small boats typically used by many HI recreational fishemen, means that stand up fishing is not favoured: the locals mainly use heavy trolling rods and reels fished from the rod holders.  For the same reason, it's usual to fish only four or five rods.  A variety of methods are used, but there is a real difference between "mainland" tactics and what has been evolved over many decades in the islands.  It may be best to build up contacts in your new area and fish with experienced local fishermen before buying too much gear, especially if you are on a budget.  

[Bryan Young]

Paduto, being in UK, you seem to know a lot about Hawaiian fishing methods as well as around the world.  Very nice having your knowledge on our site. 

Are you planning to fish Braid or mono?

[Patudo]

Thank you Brian. Many years ago I visited Kona and caught my first heavy tackle fish there, a nice ahi. 



I learned lure making from Jim Rizzuto's Fishing Hawaii Style books which, of course, are full of other interesting information.  Most of my fishing time is in oceanic islands somewhat similar in characteristics to Hawaii.  Later on some of the visiting American crews that fished in Madeira were from Hawaii or had fished there and generously shared some of their knowledge. I have a lot of respect for the fishery and fishermen of your islands.  I hope to visit again some day.